Sushi giants YO! have launched a week-long pop-up in Edinburgh at which the restaurant’s famed conveyor belt is powered by laughter.
Coinciding with Edinburgh Fringe, the YO! kaiten belt responds to levels of laughter in the dining room thanks to microphones placed throughout the restaurant.
The belt runs on the chuckles of diners thanks to the assistance of stand-up comedians during Edinburgh’s Fringe, with a rotation of shows at the restaurant until Thursday August 17. Diners can also submit their own one-liners to ensure extra laughs throughout the day.
YO! don’t exactly elucidate how the belt works, only that the “restaurant features microphones that are able respond to laughter” — so perhaps there’s still a hamster on a wheel somewhere.
The 87-metre-long belt will speed nigiri, maki and inari tacos around the restaurant, located on Edinburgh’s Princes Street, increasing in intensity with each and every giggle. The result is simple enough: the louder the laughter, the faster the belt.
Kicking off the so-called “YO! maki me laugh” event was comedian, A&E doctor and famed TikTok star Maddy Lucy Dann, who said: “Nothing quite beats the energy you get in a room when the crowd is enjoying your set but how many comedians can say they’ve helped to power an actual sushi belt with that energy — it was like magic!”
The laughter-powered belt follows on from research — commissioned by YO! themselves, it should be noted — which found that 49 per cent of Brits say they’ve laughed less in 2023, with half of us allegedly not getting our unspecified “daily dose” of laughter.
